Which state has the worst drivers?

DWO: Hawaii or California.

Some of the gentle backroads of Vermont and Maine can be pretty mean.

Colorado drivers are generally OK, except for the fact that they all seem to think that there is about a three second grace period when the light turns red. Very dangerous.

I have a 1200m hill in front of my house that I do repeats on every few weeks, with a light about 400m from the bottom. I timed the start so that I would hit it as it was turning green. After the first few weeks I had to adjust the timing so that I hit it 5 seconds after it turns green so I don't get killed -- and even still, I have almost gotten hit twice when I hit the light a few seconds early and a car decided to run the light.

turd nugget wrote:

-Washington, D.C. (Reuters)

According to a new survey jointly conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board and the United States Department of Transportation, teenage girls of East Asian descent are statistically the worst drivers in the country, responsible for nearly 70 percent of all accidents and nearly 50 percent of all traffic violations. The five year study, which was conducted over the period of August 2003 to August 2008, was released Thursday in a 500-page report.

While I agree that teenage Asian girls are bad drivers, I highly doubt that they account for 70% of all accidents and 50% of all traffic violations since they only account for about 1% of the population at most. If I get in 3 accidents, I don't think 2 out of the 3 times it will be from a teenage Asian girl's poor driving.

TPIWWP

Figures a thread designed to stereotype geographic regions would move to racial attacks this quickly.

Florida is where people go to die. In NY, only the strong survive, but in FL there's a constant influx of people getting ready to kick it. I would be impressed (although perhaps not completely surprised) if even the most incompetent female asian teenager were a worse driver than someone falling asleep or having a heart attack.

I don't understand the Utah thing, I've never been there.

wgadfsdfds wrote:

I don't understand the Utah thing, I've never been there.

Come here and you'll see what we mean.

Some responses are ridiculous. The OP asked which state has the worst drivers. Not which state has awful roads to drive on (person who said Vermont and Maine) and not the state that doesn't have lines on the road (guy who mentioned this was the case in Utah) but which state actually has the worst drivers.

I've been to RI and have no idea what the one person is saying about people making a left turn having the right away. I never noticed that and drove quite a bit in that state. Everyone is gonna have different stories of what happened to them in each state.

Utah is a load of crap. That is not even in the top 5 of worst drivers.

I would vote Florida as the worst. People have mentioned PA having an issue with cars in the left lane, you should try driving in Florida, even more specific, I-4. I find myself constantly in the far right lane to pass people. PA is no where near close to that. Way more people up North tend to know the rule about using the left lane as a passing lane.

New Jersey is my vote for second worst drivers.

I don't know which state has the worst drivers, but Massachusetts has the highest rate of accidents by a wide margin. "Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of having the highest accident rate in the country by far – 40% higher than the state with the second-highest rate"... this from an insurance analysis.

I agree that Florida is pretty bad, but there's no way that all people up North know the left lane rule. On 94 from St. Cloud to Minneapolis I pass more people on the right while going the speed limit than I ever do driving anywhere else. Central Minnesota is terrible.

Big McLargehuge wrote:

I have been passed in central TX when I was going around 100mph. There are also random discarded cars all over the highway like MarioKart obstacles.

Just wanted to mention that this is hilarious.

Jersey is the worst. The roads there have tight turns and poor notice for exits...which breeds grumpy drivers. I have witnessed road rage only in NJ.

But florida does have a lot of old drivers....

Denver Runner wrote:

Colorado drivers are generally OK, except for the fact that they all seem to think that there is about a three second grace period when the light turns red. Very dangerous.

I have a 1200m hill in front of my house that I do repeats on every few weeks, with a light about 400m from the bottom. I timed the start so that I would hit it as it was turning green. After the first few weeks I had to adjust the timing so that I hit it 5 seconds after it turns green so I don't get killed -- and even still, I have almost gotten hit twice when I hit the light a few seconds early and a car decided to run the light.

I was surprised nobody mentioned Colorado sooner. The drivers definitely run reds consistently. I, too, give it a couple of seconds, running and driving.

But I disagree that they're generally okay. Worse than running the reds is the tailgating. You can see about three cars within a second of each other on a daily basis. I'm just waiting to see a Blues Brothers type pileup.

MA is the worst of the states i have lived in (california, oregon, ohio, NJ, NY)... it isn't even closein boston/cambridge it just seemed like nobody knew where the hell they were going - you had some people driving around lost and slow, others trying to get around them at all costs,some stopped at pedestrian sidewalks, some didn't, some blatantly ran reds, others stopped at green. That was the biggest problem - there was no pattern to people's bad driving behavior.- plus you have bad drivers all dealing with streets that are old, narrow and generally don't have a good pattern to them - combine all these and you have a recipe for disaster.

perspective wrote:

I don't know which state has the worst drivers, but Massachusetts has the highest rate of accidents by a wide margin. "Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of having the highest accident rate in the country by far – 40% higher than the state with the second-highest rate"... this from an insurance analysis.

Combine the aforementioned PA drivers that camp out in the passing lane with the goat path excuses for the state's roads for a terrible driving experience!

Definitely California. We have so many bad Asian drivers and horrifyingly bad Mexican drivers that driving in Manhattan was a cruise for me. Asians seem to have bad peripheral vision and appear to have to think longer than other people to make decisions. The mestizos are awful simply because they don't appear to spend one millisecond on thinking about what they are doing. Incredibly impulsive, rude, self absorbed in that they seem unaware of others on the road and their drunk driving escapades are legendary. They make up the vast majority of those arrested for drunk driving in CA and top the list with no one else close when it comes to being responsible for fatal accidents in CA, drunk or sober.

State Rankings

Note: Many states tied for the same position in the rankings.

1 IDAHO

1 WISCONSIN

3 MONTANA

4 KANSAS

5 SOUTH DAKOTA

5 NEBRASKA

7 UTAH

8 WYOMING

8 IOWA

8 OREGON

8 MINNESOTA

12 ALASKA

12 NORTH DAKOTA

14 VERMONT

15 COLORADO

15 MISSOURI

17 OKLAHOMA

17 WASHINGTON

19 NEW MEXICO

20 NORTH CAROLINA

21 VIRGINIA

22 INDIANA

22 MICHIGAN

24 ARKANSAS

24 TEXAS

26 ALABAMA

26 NEVADA

28 WEST VIRGINIA

29 ILLINOIS

30 ARIZONA

31 MAINE

32 DELAWARE

33 NEW HAMPSHIRE

34 OHIO

35 KENTUCKY

36 PENNSYLVANIA

37 LOUISIANA

38 TENNESSEE

38 MISSISSIPPI

40 SOUTH CAROLINA

40 MARYLAND

42 CONNECTICUT

43 FLORIDA

44 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

45 MASSACHUSETTS

46 RHODE ISLAND

47 GEORGIA

48 CALIFORNIA

49 HAWAII

50 NEW JERSEY

51 NEW YORK

I vote for Washington State. Being in Oregon is such an improvement with drivers who drive fast in the left lane and slow drivers stay to the right.